And earthy toned white with timber shutters and a small tree in front yard to soften look of house

Replacing windows with a larger more modern look would look great, the colour of the railing looks great, you could paint steps and balcony the same and have an instant update, rendering is a constant upkeep due to cracking etc. Also you need to update other areas otherwise it can look like it is not enough on its own.Think cladding as an alternative, either dark or light, that would blend beautifully with the sandstone wall, then add large foliage plants to your garden. Could look beautiful.

I would concentrate on landscaping. Not render. What king of windows would you install? Remove roller blind and replace, if required, with an up to date roller shutter. I would be looking at the proportions of the house front facade and balance with more planting. Especially below the front left hand window.

Something like this. Adding slats or cladding to bottom of front left brick. Front step in same colour and roller shutter in same colour.
Change the steps from street to sandstone, but just paint the steps leading up to home.

Just a few inspiration photos for you, rendering, cladding and a before and after facade facelift, there are fabulous products around for updating your home

Thank you so much. I guess the question should have been how to best improve the street appeal/ facade/ exterior of our home. Being our first time, we just defaulted to rendering because we weren’t aware of all options. I had also considered repointing the brickwork.

The proportion of the home on the left hand side is one of the main problems and it looks too 1-dimensional/flat and long and I agree this will remain problematic regardless of whether we render or not.

Investing in the garden is definitely high on our priority list and we will also remove the dated shutters.

I haven’t decided on windows yet, I guess it will depend on whether we render or do something else to the facade.

So much to consider!